After some debate about where to start (no thanks to Mr Hull) we agreed in order to prevent a(nother) tantrum to start at Top car park Tollymore . Big Dave was to be guide along with ace cyclist Tomek Michalski (aka Tom ) . This left The Horse demoted to sweeper from his usual place at the head of the field but he took it in reasonable spirit . The Hound was sadly missed and our thoughts are with him as he struggles through a really bad tickly cough , get well soon Les .
Rowan had a poor start with a mechanical and had to retire .The bike formerly known as ” the best bike in the world” is now lying in a heap on a hillside in Burren soon to be replaced with the next best bike in the world which he has been mumbling about anyway .

So many loops today with so many lovely if challenging trails ( ok challenging for an auld thing like me) .I cant describe them all but the route map covers it.

Cormac managed an early comeback and the lack of appendix does not seem to have slowed him down ,I suspect he had something performance enhancing implanted in its place.

After last weeks big show of female talent ( in an MTB sense) , where were they today , even Molly didn’t show . Only herself showed up , must try harder girls. Paul had sent in a sick note however the committee decided that it was not acceptable.

Maybe it was just as well as we had our exploring hats on. After climbing the long mile ,crossing to the ford and dropping to the Ulster way we headed for castle bog , stopping only to fail at fixing Rorys puncture . At the top we opted for a new descent to sheep pen along the fence . It was actually 90% rideable and I was impressed at the lack of complaints . Back home via Red Bog and home by ulster way , trails and wall. Quite an old school sort of day , relaxed pace , plenty of technical challenges and lots of mud .

Hopefully get a better turn out next week in preparation for Santa Saturday (17th)